This world is inhabited by creatures that we call pokemon. People and pokemon live together by supporting each other, but now the scourge threatens the safety of the entire region. Kohaku has become a dangerous place, where children stay at home and only brave souls go adventuring.
Welcome to KOHAKU. Come for the nightmares. Stay for the tea and crumpets.
The season is SUMMER. It is easy for survivors to forage for food from the land, as there are entire abandoned farms ready for harvest. On the downside, you can smell the corpses.
swarms
GRAND OPENING !
Welcome to KOHAKU REGION's grand opening! If you're interested in joining, come check out our grand opening giveaway!
[style=opacity: 0.8; background-color: #F0F0F0; width: 360px; font-family: verdana; font-size: 10px; color: #333333; padding: 10px; text-align: justify;]Come on, Barnaby. The door’s right there… Heck, if you’d traveled halfway across Kohaku for blasted pokémon, you would be a little exhausted too. That final hike from Proserpina had churned his excuse for muscles into fluid, and Barnaby now had himself second-guessing, minutes away from the goal. The Hespera native basically floated towards the front door of the acclaimed professor’s laboratories. From all his dealings with the Pokémon Association, he had heard plenty about Dr. Cypress and his team of hardworking scientists. The darned acclamation of a man he didn’t even meet yet had Barnaby grooming himself in the middle of the street. This, however, may have been the most important moment of the boy’s life. Not knowing that as of yet, the panicky kid didn’t want to take any chances.
Uncertain about his looks, he scaled the steps of the lab and knocked unevenly on the door. He was indecisive about many things when it came to this meeting. Mostly, Barnaby wasn’t convinced that he was the breed of superhero that these Association peeps wanted to support. A scrawny teen from the city didn’t seem like the perfect background. Plus, he wasn’t even assured about the type of pokémon he wished to receive. He figured that such a decision should’ve been made long before he met the professor. These muddled thoughts were further tangled with a fanboy-ism for these researching folk. Sure, he wanted to fight the Scourge head-on, but such a backup career choice seemed normal. He tilted his head back and forth to switch his opinion on these thoughts. Everything about him seemed so…unsettled.
Impatient hands developed minds of their own., and in a few moments, the boy had opened the door and found himself inside a room full of baffling apparatuses. He was exposed to nothing like this in Hespera, and struggled against his curiosity to not touch anything. Uh, where is everybody? He sighed while peering at the side of a machine like a mirror. The place seemed like a more high-tech version of the political offices in Hespera. There was paperwork, everywhere, but also a ton of machines. It felt a bit alone, wanting someone desperately to tell him that he was in the right place.
“Hello? Barnaby Draper, here… Uh, I’m here for a pokémon, I mean!” [/style]
Professor Cypress heard the door open, which was rare for him when he was busy in the labs. Then again, this time he wasn't really busy. Instead of having his undivided attention set on one task, the professor was rifling through paperwork. There'd been a handful of trainers in lately, and he needed to enter all their contact information and other personal details into the Pokemon Association's database. It wasn't too interesting, but it was work that he handled better than either of his assistants. Mr. and Mrs. Brown could manipulate the computer keyboard with telekinesis, but telekinetic dexterity took effort, and the professor could probably touch-type in his sleep.
Someone at the door was, quite frankly, a pleasant surprise. It took a moment to leave his desk, making sure all the papers were still in order before he left, but he ducked into the foyer soon enough. Professor coughed as he entered, pausing for an awkward second before he waved a hello. "Good morning, welcome to Cypress Laboratories, we, uh, do research about defeating the scourge and that sort of thing. I'm Professor Cypress, how can I help--wait. Right, you're here for a pokemon. One moment..."
By the pokemon transporter--the latest model and far shinier than necessary, mostly thanks to Mrs. Brown's cleaning efforts--Professor Cypress retrieved a clipboard. "Alright, I have a form for you here, and under it's a few sheets listing the breeds of pokemon we have available right now. The form's nothing horrible, just contact information and such so we can get in touch with you. I know you already applied to the Pokemon Association, but we enter all the details into the system here, and they don't really give me their files."
Professor Cypress stopped, suddenly realizing that he wasn't even sure who this boy was. "...You have applied through the Pokemon Association, right? They sent you here?"
[style=opacity: 0.8; background-color: #F0F0F0; width: 360px; font-family: verdana; font-size: 10px; color: #333333; padding: 10px; text-align: justify;]The foyer’s silence was thankfully interrupted by oncoming steps. Barnaby braced himself for whatever whoever this could be; whatever appearance they held. It had been quite eerie in such a neat, orderly place unaided. He took one brief moment to examine the room again, ‘til the professor moseyed himself into the space. The teen was a little shaken by his attention-getting cough, feeling a bit guilty even. However, the man’s introduction seemed so welcoming, gentle, and at ease. It calmed the boy down to those expectations, and Barnaby no longer looked stiff as a board. He was serious, though, nodding to each and every word the man spoke. And, just as the kid rose to speak up, the man walked away to collect something.
This isn’t so hard. He seems nice… Barnaby mused, and then stiffened again as Dr. Cypress returned to speak. No matter what he did, the boy appeared to be doing something mischievous and/or acting like a total goofball. Accepting the papers, he immediately jumped to the breeds of pokémon. Perhaps, if he actually looked at the kinds of specimen he could choose, he’d come to a decision. For everything else, he didn’t mind rewriting all his info. It all seemed customary and not even tedious. Maybe, his excitement for the pokémon overcame any care for putting his mark on things. He looked up, since the scientist addressed him again.
“Yessir, my name’s Barnaby Draper. The, urm, Association sent me here, like you said.” He plunged back into the paperwork and species list. Barnaby hated himself. He usually wasn’t this awkward, but everything seemed to go by so smoothly. This was what he was working for, and perhaps he was still tired from the journey here. Anyway, his eyes carelessly landed on a certain pokémon that interested him immediately. It was one of the smallest, it seemed. Despite that, Barnaby just felt like it packed a punch since it was on the same list as these other guys. “Odd-ish..? Was he even saying it right? In his periphery, he finished up the last bit of contact info, but keep his eyes on this little guy.
“ Is it alright, if I have this one?” He asked, pointing and showing the man on the page. [/style]
Oh, good. That allowed Professor Cypress to breathe a sigh of relief. So the boy really was sent here by the Pokemon Association--they'd be mentioning to him lately that there seemed to be some extra, non-approved trainers entered into the database, but Professor Cypress kept telling them that they were mistaken. Sure, he'd entered a few trainers that he thought deserved a pokemon, but not so many for the Association to ever take notice, right?
"Odd... ish? Ah, yes, oddishes, we definitely have those--three of them, I think. I'll bring them right out to meet you, and if you decide you like one of them, then you're good to go. And, um, make sure you sign on the back of the form. There's a line for you at the bottom somewhere. I think I get into trouble if I don't get your signature. After that, yes, it's completely alright for you to have an oddish."
Professor Cypress went to the transporter device and pressed a few keys, the machine coming to life with whirs and electric lights. After a few seconds, three pokeballs appeared in the mouth of the device, each one containing an oddish. Well aware that at least the oddishes were all a relatively mild group, Professor Cypress released them all at once, safe in the belief that none of them would try to eat the prospective trainer. Herbivores are such a blessing.
The oddish that appeared first stretched her legs and leaves before turning to see the trainer. She greeted Barnaby with a bright smile and approached him to nuzzle at his feet. "That one's very sweet and gentle, but also very protective. She can be fierce when she needs to be, so don't worry about her kind nature getting in the way in a battle."
The second oddish approached Barnaby too, but not with nearly as much haste. He was held back partially by caution and partially by shyness. "Go on, boy, he won't bite--uh, you won't bite, right? No, really, he won't bite," Professor Cypress said, nudging the oddish forward gently. "This one's rather quiet. I don't think he's timid so much as he's very prudent. He doesn't really like strangers, but he seems curious about you, so that's good."
The third oddish took one glance at Barnaby and didn't bother with a second. Obviously bored, she sat down and fiddled with her leaves until they were just so. <Oddiii~sh,> she whined, complaining about how the stay in the pokeball ruined the shine in her chlorophyll. "Er--she's vain, but she can be nice! Maybe. I imagine she must be able to be nice anyway. She's a great battler anyway, and she likes to win."
[style=opacity: 0.8; background-color: #F0F0F0; width: 360px; font-family: verdana; font-size: 10px; color: #333333; padding: 10px; text-align: justify;]Barnaby felt as if his head was pendulum, constantly nodding to the man’s every word. The doctor was rather talkative, but he definitely got to the point eventually. It all really didn’t matter to the Hespera teen at this point. He seemed perfectly content with whatever scenario developed from this. With a flick of his wrist, he finished off his signature and returned his gaze to the professor. Whut? Barnaby could only arch an eyebrow at how adeptly the man handled the machinery. When the device budged around, the boy’s look was as if he just saw witchcraft of some sort. He was sold that such a device was way beyond him, by the time it spat out the three pokéballs.
His eyes followed the red-and-white spheres, as Cypress picked them up and discharged the oddishes within. Sure, he’s seen pokémon being released like that before, but never up close. Furthermore, he had to handle the fact that small little weed pokémon were now in his presence. It seemed a bit unreal, even for a boy who lived in this universe. He kept his eyes peering upon these three creatures, as they loomed near and nuzzled at his feet. One didn’t, and the doctor eventually explained why, but something childish triggered within the boy. Barnaby plainly knelt down and sat on the ground. In an Indian-styled sit, he got a better look at the three separate oddishes.
Sweety. She was delightful, and seemed definitely willing to be his own. The fact that she approached him said a bit showed a deep contrast in their personalities, though. It wasn’t a bad thing necessarily, but he needed to weigh the pros and cons, right? Prude. This pokémon reacted in his own adorable manner, which seemed to have quickly become the basis of picking a partner. Barnaby just saw himself in the tiny weed, and wasn’t certain if that was good thing or not. Curious, the boy picked up that this one was the only oddish that Cypress didn’t mention having any battling prowess. Sure, it didn’t mean that the little pokémon couldn’t perform. Having little to none info about this one, he made his decision; the last oddish would find a partner someday anyway.
“This one. Might as well indulge that curiosity, right?” Barnaby said, innocently while pointing at the timid weed. He offered the coy oddish an endearing grin, and leaned over towards it in a totally non-aggressive way. “You’re alright with that…huh little guy?” [/style]
The Professor beamed as the girl leaned forward and offered her kind words towards the timid, yet curious oddish. The plant took a step back, more out of keeping sure he was safe and save face than out of fear. He blinked up towards her and uttered a soft hurr, now finding the the courage to advance cautiously towards the girl.
"Look at that...It seems you two will make a great team! ", he said after the boy made his choice, recalling the other two oddish into their pokeballs and sending them back into the PC. Producing a kit of items from out of nowhere (they were actually stored under the transporter), Professor Cypress presented the oddish's pokeball and the kit to Barnaby. "Here, that's its pokeball and a few items from me and the Association to get you started--and you're all set. Take care of each other and good luck on your journey!"
Barnaby received a LV05 male Oddish! Absorb | Sweet Scent | +1 egg move
[/style]
